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Nostalgia

Alpha 1

Concept 75 (2012)

The beginnings of concept 75, based on my experiences with Snarl scripted styles and extensions. Plugins are scripts but can now base themselves on pre-defined control. Controls are Active X objects which are built into eggShell (the ability to have third-party controls will be added) and these do all the heavy lifting. These four screenshots show a single bar with different plugins loaded, each built on a different control.

Having pre-defined controls makes plugin development infinitely easier, as a lot of the hard work is already done for the developer. Want a toolbar plugin? Just set the control entry to toolbar during the plugin's initialisation phase. The toolbar is then made available to the plugin as an object called control. The plugin can then add the buttons it wants and respond to them accordingly when they're clicked by the user.

ColdFusion (2005)

The ColdFusion concept was starting in 2005 and was spun off from my Konfabulator clone, dotWidget. The idea was to promote the use of script-based plugins in order to widen the scope of people who could develop plugins.

First running test of ColdFusion

Three publicity shots, all from May 2005, which provide more information about the bars themselves and also demonstrate the functionality available. The concept is beginning to take shape now and this is the first time that plugins created by scripts (as opposed to COM DLL-based objects) has been considered. I still consider ColdFusion to be a turning point in the evolution of what is now eggShell.

A later screenshot showing how it looked before the concept was finally abandoned. Snarl development began during 2005 and quickly took priority over all other conceptual projects, including ColdFusion.

The screenshot shows a number of bars of varying sizes on a full desktop. Available plugins are still limited at this time, but even this limited number shows the flexibility available to the end user.

Stardust (c. 2002/2003)

Stardust was the codename for the successor to Cloud:9ine. It's likely the finished product would have retained the Cloud:9ine name, possibly including the Stardust moniker. Sadly, a dwindling support base coupled with a general shift away from shells by end users, meant that only preview versions of Stardust were ever released.

Concept shots of potential new features to be added

An alpha version

Cloud:9ine (c. 1999-2002)

The origin of where we're at now! Cloud:9ine debuted in 1999 and was under constant development and improvement until well into 2002, during which time many new features were added, and plenty more were in progress.